Have you ever wondered how to dazzle job interviewers when they ask, "Can you walk me through your resume?" Join career expert and award-winning author Andrew LaCivita as he discusses walk me through your resume: best way to respond!

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It is probably one of the dumbest ways for a job interviewer to open up the interview, but it is one of the best things that could possibly happen to you.

You might be puzzled. I know there are a lot of you out there puzzled because I get the emails and I get the questions on my YouTube channel and blog.

You're wondering how to answer this. You say, “Ugh, I'm not sure where to start. I'm not sure what to say. I'm not sure what to share. I don't want to share the wrong things.”

What you should be thinking is, “Yes. Thank you Mr. Unskilled Job Interviewer for lobbing me that sweet softball question so I can now totally control the interview and dazzle you with my professional highlight reel. So buckle up and prepare to be amazed.”

That's what should be going through your head because you now get to offer up whatever it is you want to share.

Do’s, Don’ts, Always, and Never-Evers…

Before we get into the “here's how,” I want to talk a little bit about the do’s and don'ts to get you positioned in the right spot before you walk them through.

First thing I want you to do is [it's actually before the interview ever starts, day before, week before, whenever it is, I want you to] look at your resume!

1] Look at the job description and determine what areas or activities or accomplishments in your resume most closely align and best suit you to do that role effectively. Think about those.

It's got 14 great areas to investigate about any major project you do in your professional career.

It'll provide questions to ask yourself and information to gather that will be wonderful to share [whether with your current employer or a perspective employer].

I want you to think through the resume and how it aligns to what it is they need in an employee. That's the first do.

2] The second “do” is make sure you bring a copy of your resume to the job interview.

It's something a lot of people forget to do, but here's why you need it.

You cannot be sure the job interviewer's actually going to have a copy. Even if he or she does have a copy, it's highly likely they have not read it. I know it's sad, but it's true.

They're that lazy, which is why they asked you to walk them through it. They want you to read it to them. Extra sad face.

3] You also want to make sure before you start you know what direction to go. Ask them.

There are basically three directions you can go through this exercise.

You can start at the beginning of your professional life and walk them through your resume up to today. Ask them, “Do you want me to start at the beginning and bring you current?”

You can start with today and go in reverse chronological order and work backwards to the beginning of your professional career.

You can cherry pick those areas for them to determine whether you’re a good fit for the job and have best prepared you for the role?

They'll probably want you to go from the beginning of time to today, but regardless of which direction, you'll know.

4] Don’t read them what's on the resume. Don't look at your resume and start reading. You'll be very dry.

5] Don't [just] talk about the activities you have on the resume. You'll lose them. You'll lose their attention. It's not that exciting what you were responsible for.

Here’s how to roll…

Once you know what direction they want you to go (most of them are going to want you to go from the beginning of time till today), start going through your resume.

When you start at the beginning (now for many of you I know that was 10, 20, or 30 years ago) remember not all the information on your resume is created equal in helping you get that job. It's not all as relevant.

For those areas, especially the ones at the beginning of your career, I want you to walk through those very, very quickly.

If I was interviewing and someone wanted to interview me for a practice leadership position and asked me to walk them through my resume, I might say, “I got out of college and started working as a programmer and then I became a designer and then I started managing projects that implemented software solutions."

That took me [less than] 10 seconds to go through five years of my career because it's not very relevant!

But, they asked you to start there so that's what you want to do. You want to go through the less critical areas very quickly.

Then, when you get to a spot in your career where you think you have a home run accomplishment or achievement, take your opportunity to shine.

Give them context on what was happening in that project. What did you do? What was the business benefit? Who were you doing it for? Who were you doing it with? How much money did you save them? How much revenue did you generate them?

You might be thinking, “Andy, I could go on for an hour talking about myself, my resume.”

GOOD!

Good, go do that. You get to script exactly what it is that you want to say.

You might be thinking, “I'm not really sure. Maybe I'm running off at the mouth. I might bore them.”

There's ways after you hit each major area in your resume, just take a pause, look over to the interviewer and just say, "Is that enough there? Did you have anymore questions about that? Did you want to discuss that any further? How am I doing? Should I go onto the next point?" Just do what you need to do to give yourself a quick break.

The fact of the matter is they turned control of the interview over to you so you now get to blueprint the dialogue that occurs.

You get to tell them what you want to tell them, not what they want to ask you. That's the wonderful thing about getting asked that question early in the interview.

If you want to learn more about how to respond to their questions or how to tell stories in a job interview, check out my free webinar called 3 Keys to Ace Any Job Interview. It's free.

If you liked the video, give me a LIKE, a COMMENT, and a SHARE!

Like this episode? Please share it via social media and review it on iTunes! I can keep this blog and all future podcasts and videos ad-free and sponsor-free ONLY because you share my work! Please share or subscribe to my podcast and YouTube channel too!

Want more advanced material? Join the milewalk Academy and grab some of the free offerings that support the instruction in this post!

Do you feel you need to raise your confidence in your job interviews? Join career expert and award-winning author Andrew LaCivita as he discusses job interview confidence: boost yours with these protips!

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Confidence and the way you exude it is one of the most important ingredients to a successful job interview!

Let’s level-set here. I know you all have varying degrees of confidence. Whoever you are, however confident or non-confident you are, think about when you were most confident.

You probably felt super-knowledgeable about what you were doing or discussing. Knowledge breeds confidence.

You also probably felt very prepared. Preparation breeds confidence.

So, the first thing I want you to do is just take a deep breath. Remember, if you are in a job interview, you are likely qualified for that job and you can do it effectively. That’s why the employer invited you in for an interview. So take some comfort in that.

Now, the preparation part is something I can really help you with. That’s what we’re going to focus on in this video.

Before we dive into that, I want you to think about the context of three biggest aspects of what’s happening in a job interview:

You’ve got you, and your story, and what you’re all about.

You’ve got the employer, the questions they’re going to ask you, and the responses you give them for them to determine whether you’re a good fit.

You’ve got the questions you’re going to ask the employer to determine if they’re a good fit for you.

Know your story.

I’m sure some of you are out there thinking, Andy, I live with myself all the time! Of course I know my story.

I won’t argue with that, but there’s a huge difference between knowing what you’ve done, being able to recall it in detail under duress, bringing real life into it with the color and details you give your story when you share it with somebody.

Let’s paint the scene. You start the interview. It’s all about your story in the beginning.

Somebody just asked you, “Tell me about yourself.” Or how about this one, “Walk me through your resume.” That’s the best because now you can waltz right through it, you’ve got your resume to use as a crutch.

Like I said, remembering what it is you did isn’t so difficult. But, being able to share your story with some real life, that’s where the confidence comes in.

So, before you go into a job interview, I want you to think back. Sit down with your resume, pour your favorite cup of coffee, and sit at the coffee table. You’ve got no distractions. You’re not under any duress.

Go through your resume and think through the highlights on your resume and all the bullets you’ve got laid out there. What was actually happening at the time you were doing that?

Remember, some of these activities you performed might be ten years old, but they could still be very, very relevant to what the employer wants to know. Who was on the project?

What were you doing? Think about what the air smelled like. Think about the business problem.

I have a great aid you can download I call my career achievements journal. It’s got 14 points you should address for every major project in your career.

Use those questions to stimulate your thinking so you could start to recall what was happening throughout the last 10 or 20 years of your career. So, when somebody says as you’re walking through your resume, “Hey, hold it right there, that’s really interesting to me. Let’s talk a little bit more about that part of your career.”

Now, you’re ready to say, “You know what, oh man, that was such a wonderful time in my life. I was on this 30-person project team, we were implementing this software system for our customer. I was managing a five-person SWAT team that was focusing on the architectural design and development blah blah blah.”

That is much different when you have it at your fingertips, even though it was 10 or 15 years ago, and you’re able to articulate it with details. Details about what’s going on at any moment in your story is what brings life to it. It helps the person paint a picture of what is happening, and it makes them feel as though you know your stuff, and you will come off as confident!

Know your responses.

When they start asking more detailed questions about your experience and your skill sets, knowing your responses and the details you want to share will be extremely important.

If you look at the questions, you will see a pattern. There are a lot of very, very good interview questions the employer disguises, but they’re all looking for the same 15-20 aspects about you.

Use the eBook to get the questions and career journal to help with your responses.

The preparation, your understanding of the most common and most critical job interview questions, and knowing your responses are somethings you can do in advance.

You can use that career achievements journal to stimulate your thoughts and the details that go along with those responses. Knowing those responses cold will help you come off as more confident. And, you’ll be ready for any question that comes along.

Know your questions. And follow up questions.

If you are well researched and have very well thought-out questions, these can be scripted based on your requirements and what’s important to you.

You get to do all of this in advance, so script out those questions. If you’re looking for a bunch of questions, here’s another giveaway for you. I have a free webinar called 3 Keys to Ace Any Job Interview.

Attendees get a great e-book called How to Interview the Employer: 75 Great Questions to Ask Before You Take Any Job.

Use those questions, take the ones you want, you’ll never run out. There are plenty of them there for you to choose from.

Here’s your protip: it’s not just good enough to ask well-designed questions, and be thorough, and show that you’re researched. Confidence comes from able to quickly respond to what the employer says in his or her response to your question.

So step number one is nailing the question you want to ask. Step number two is you spending some time, in advance, anticipating the employer’s possible responses and being ready with your follow-up questions.

That shows them you’re confident. That shows them you know what you’re looking for. That shows them you know how to investigate. Confidence comes from that, and if you are able to anticipate what the likely outcomes will be, you’re going to be way ahead of the game.

I hope you like those points. If you enjoyed this, give me a like, a comment, and a share!

Like this episode? Please share it via social media and review it on iTunes! I can keep this blog and all future podcasts and videos ad-free and sponsor-free ONLY because you share my work! Please share or subscribe to my podcast and YouTube channel too!

Want more advanced material? Join the milewalk Academy and grab some of the free offerings that support the instruction in this post!

Been invited back for a second job interview and want to make sure to ace it? Join career expert and award-winning author Andrew LaCivita as he discusses the second job interview: 3 tips to get hired!

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Check out Second Job Interview: 3 Tips to Get Hired on my Tips for Work and Life Blog with the video, podcast, full transcript, and more!: http://milewalk.com/mwblog/http://milewalk.com/mwblog/second-job-interview-3-tips-get-hired/

Let’s talk about the second job interview. You know the one. They loved you so much the first time, they invited you back!

I’m going to give you three great tips. These are the exact same three tips I gave one of my Interview Intervention Course students, Hannah. She used them to get the job on her second interview. [Hannah, if you’re watching, shout out to you. Hope you’re enjoying the new job!

For the rest of you, I want you to know the second interviews are not much different—tactically—than the first interviews.

Say, “Last time I was here you mentioned [insert whatever here]. It really stuck with me. I thought more about it and I wanted to get more insight into that as it relates to [insert whatever here.] Could you elaborate…”

This starts a deeper discussion on something you’ve already spoken about. Going deeper into the conversation on something both of you consider very important builds a deeper relationship.

Ask More.

The second tactic is to ask additional (new) questions. If you are speaking with somebody who you’ve previously spoken with previously, you want to make sure you’re asking him or her a new batch of questions.

If you’re speaking with someone you haven’t spoken with, make sure you have lots and lots of great questions.

If you’re not sure where to get these great questions, go to my FREE webinar 3 Keys to Ace Any Job Interview because all attendees receive a FREE eBook called How to Interview the Employer: 75 Great Questions to Ask Before You Take Any Job.

You will never run out of questions. Plus, this shows you are well-researched and you are very, very interested in investigating this company further. And, you’re doing it in a smart way.

Be Inclusive.

The third tip is to be inclusive of other people. By that I mean, reference conversations you’ve had with others in the organization. [You can even use this in the first round of interviews.]

Whether you’re speaking with somebody you previously spoken with or you’re speaking with new people, one the best tactics you can use is to refer to what you and someone spoke about and then ask for their opinion.

For example, “I talked with Susie the other day and she mentioned [insert whatever here]. I loved that and I’d like to get your insight on that. Could you elaborate on that as it relates to [insert whatever here]?”

Consider the person you’re interviewing. Whether he or she is a subordinate of Susie’s, a peer, or a superior, you can adjust the angle of trajectory of your questioning and take it in the direction of that particular individual.

You’re showing them you enjoyed speaking with Susie, you found what she said delightful, and also want their opinion.

You value their opinion and they with naturally see you as a team player. [You certainly sound like one!]

As you start to reference others in the organization in a sincere way, the interviewer will start to feel like you are part of the team.

As a bonus, this gives you an opportunity to make sure there is a level of consistency across their responses. Are they all on the same page?

If you like this video, give me a LIKE, COMMENT, and SHARE!

Like this episode? Please share it via social media and review it on iTunes! I can keep this blog and all future podcasts and videos ad-free and sponsor-free ONLY because you share my work! Please share or subscribe to my podcast and YouTube channel too!

Want more advanced material? Join the milewalk Academy and grab some of the free offerings that support the instruction in this post!